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Sunday, June 29, 2014

Ahead of "Cutting Season" and Girl Summit 2014, the Muslim Council of
Britain (MCB) last week endorsed a landmark declaration making Female Genital
Mutilation (FGM) unlawful and clarifying it is not supported by religious
doctrine.

The UK’s most prominent
Muslim organization on June 20 denounced FGM as contrary to Islam, adding that
the traditional practice severely violates the human rights of women and girls.

The first Girl Summit,
to be hosted by the UK and UNICEF on July 22, aims to mobilize domestic and
international efforts to end FGM and child early and forced marriage (CEFM) within
a generation.

Girls and women have the right to live free from violence and
discrimination and achieve their potential, but some are being prevented from
doing so by harmful practices such asFGMandCEFM,
which are illegal in the UK, says a statement on the UK government site.

The
summit wants to secure new commitments from the private sector, faith leaders,
other civil society organizations and governments.

Child, early and forced marriage occurs in every part of the
world, affecting millions of girls every year. One in three girls in developing
countries is married by the age of 18, and one in nine by the age of 15. Some
are as young as eight.

Girls who marry young have babies while still children, putting
them at risk of death or suffering for the rest of their lives. They are more
likely to be poor and stay poor. In the UK, hundreds of girls risk being forced
into marriage, violating their human rights. Forced marriage victims can suffer
physical, psychological, emotional, financial and sexual abuse.

FGMremoves a
girl’s right to have control over her own body. Traditionally considered
essential for marriage and inclusion in the community, it is an extreme and
violent way in which girls and women are controlled and disempowered. It can
result in a lifetime of pain, psychological problems and difficulty in
childbirth. Current trends suggest at least 30 million girls will be at risk
over the next decade -- with more than 20,000 at risk in the United Kingdom
every year, the UK government website adds.

MCB
declaration

The
religious and community leaders that signed the historic declaration condemning
FGM noted, however, there are still barriers to ending the practice in the UK.

The
MCB is one of the UK’s largest and most diverse Muslim umbrella organizations
with over 500 affiliated national, regional and local organizations, mosques,
charities and schools.

The MCB will launch a campaign by distributing leaflets in mosques
and community centers in Britain to support ending the barbaric practice.

It said it was “not true” mutilation was a Muslim requirement
noting that one of the “basic principles” of Islam was not to harm oneself or
others.

The MCB said FGM was bringing Islam “into disrepute” and could
cause severe pain, bleeding, problems in pregnancy and even death, as well
leaving some victims with lasting psychological problems.

The new leaflet states: “FGM is not an Islamic requirement. There
is no reference to it in the Holy Quran that states girls must be circumcised.
Nor is there any authentic reference to this in the Sunnah, the sayings
or traditions of our Prophet. FGM is bringing the religion of Islam into
disrepute.”

The document also warns there is “an increasingly high risk of
being prosecuted” for carrying out mutilation, which has been illegal in the UK
since 1985, and that perpetrators face up to 14 years in prison.

The MCB announcement follows a Home Office summiton June 19 at which other religious organizations, including the
Shia al-Khoei Foundation and the Muslim Women’s Network UK, announced their
support for a government declaration against FGM to be published at the Girl
Summit.

Harmful practice

Three million girls and women are subjected to
FGM worldwide each year. That's 8000 girls per day.

FGM is a harmful practice that is recognized worldwide as a human
rights violation. The practice of FGM violates:

Right to physical and mental integrity

Right to highest attainable standard of health

Right to be free from all forms of discrimination against women
(including violence against women)

Right to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment

Rights of the child, and

In extreme cases, right to life

The European Parliament estimates 500,000 girls and
women living in Europe are suffering with the lifelong
consequences of FGM. It still
affects up to 140 million women and girls worldwide, with an estimated
20,000 girls at risk in the UK.

Increasingly
as migration becomes more common, diaspora communities arriving to Western
nations continue the practice. FGM prevalence is therefore rising among migrant
residents of Norway, Australia, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the
United States. Migrant families, often traveling with their young daughters in
summer vacations to their native countries, have the procedure performed at
grave risk of infection bleeding and death when non-clinicians perform this
procedure. School holidays become “The Cutting Season.”

FGM tradition

Also
known as female circumcision or simply as “cutting,” FGM/C involves removing
all or part of the clitoris, the surrounding labia (the outer part of the
vagina) and sometimes the sewing up of the vagina, leaving only a small opening
for urine and menstrual blood.

There
are no medical benefits to this tradition. It is carried out for cultural
reasons, often because it demonstrates a girl's virginity on her wedding night.

It seems the practice predates Christianity and Islam. There
is mention made of Egyptian mummies that display characteristics of FGM/C. The
historian Herodotus claims that in the fifth century BC the Phoenicians,
Hittites and Ethiopians practiced circumcision. It is also reported
circumcision rites were practiced in tropical zones of Africa, in the
Philippines, by certain tribes in the Upper Amazon, and in Australia by women
of the Arunta tribe. It also occurred among the early Romans and Arabs.

Many different peoples and societies have followed the FGM/C
practice. It cuts across ages, continents, religions and is performed by
Muslims, Christians, Ethiopian Jews and Copts among others.

The
World Health Organization (WHO)
estimates between 100 and 140 million girls and women worldwide have been
subjected to one of three types of female genital mutilation. Estimates based
on the most recent prevalence data indicate that 91.5 million girls and women
above the age of nine in Africa are currently living with the consequences of FGM.
There are an estimated three million girls in Africa at risk of undergoing FGM
every year.

Type 1: Excision of
the prepuce, with or without excision of part or the entire clitoris.

Type 2: Excision of
the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora.

Type 3: Excision of
part or all of the external genitalia and stitching/narrowing of the vaginal
opening (infibulation) -- sometimes referred to as pharaonic circumcision.

Type 4: Others, such
as pricking, piercing or incising, stretching, burning of the clitoris,
scraping of tissue surrounding the vaginal orifice, cutting of the vagina,
introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding
or to tighten the opening.

The
removal of, or damage to, healthy, normal genital tissue interferes with the
natural functioning of the body and causes several immediate and long-term
health consequences. For example, babies born to women who have undergone
female genital mutilation suffer a higher rate of neonatal death; end in
stillbirth or spontaneous abortion; and in a further 25%, the newborn has a low
birth weight or serious infection, both of which are associated with an
increased risk of perinatal death.

WHO says FGM/C is nearly always carried out on minors and is
therefore a violation of the rights of the child. It also violates the rights
to health, security and physical integrity of the person, the right to be free
from torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the right to life
when the procedure results in death.

In
Egypt, 94% of women arrange for their daughters to undergo this “medicalized”
form of FGM/C, 76% in Yemen, 65% in Mauritania, 48% in Côte d’Ivoire, and 46%
in Kenya. This approach may reduce some of the immediate consequences of the
procedure -- such as pain and bleeding -- but, WHO and UNICEF point out, it
also tends to obscure its human rights aspect and could hinder the development
of long-term solutions for ending the practice.

How
many more generations will it take to eradicate FGM/C? Is the magic word
“education”? Is FGM/C a practice too deep-rooted to overcome? Maybe only time
will tell…

In the meantime, you can take a stand with me against FGM/C and
child and forced marriage bysigning
the pledgeto
show your support in ending these harmful practices forever. Our voices will be
heard at the Girl Summit.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

“At first I was
so scared… then I got used to it,” said Ayman, who began fighting with an FSA
brigade in Salqin when he was 15 years old.

“Maybe we’ll
live, and maybe we’ll die,” said Omar, who began fighting at age 14 with Jabhat
al-Nusra.

Non-state
armed groups in Syria have used children as young as 15 to fight in battles,
sometimes recruiting them under the guise of offering education, Human Rights
Watch said in a report released on Monday. The groups have used children as
young as 14 in support roles. Extremist Islamist groups including the Islamic
State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS) have specifically recruited children through free
schooling campaigns that include weapons training, and have given them
dangerous tasks, including suicide bombing missions.

The
31-page report “‘Maybe
We Live and Maybe We Die’: Recruitment and Use of Children by Armed Groups in
Syria,” documents the experiences of 25 children and former child soldiers
in Syria’s armed conflict. Human Rights Watch interviewed children who fought
with the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic Front coalition, and the extremist
groups ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, as well as the military
and police forces in Kurdish-controlled areas. The report does not, for
logistical and security reasons, cover all armed groups that allegedly have
used children in Syria, in particular pro-government militias. Using children
in armed conflict violates international law.

“Syrian
armed groups shouldn’t prey on vulnerable children -- who have seen their
relatives killed, schools shelled, and communities destroyed -- by enlisting
them in their forces,” said Priyanka Motaparthy,
Middle East children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch and author of
the report. “The horrors of Syria’s armed conflict are only made worse by
throwing children into the front lines.”

The
number of children fighting with armed groups in Syria is not known. By June
2014, the Violations Documenting Center, a Syrian monitoring group, had
documented 194 deaths of “non-civilian” male children in Syria since September
2011.

The
children Human Rights Watch interviewed had fought in battles, acted as
snipers, manned checkpoints, spied on hostile forces, treated the wounded on
battlefields, and ferried ammunition and other supplies to front lines while
fighting raged. They said they joined non-state armed groups for various
reasons. Many followed their relatives or friends, while others lived in battle
zones without schooling or other options. Some had participated in public
protests that motivated them to do more, or had personally suffered at the
hands of the government. While all those interviewed were boys, the Kurdish
Democratic Union Party (PYD) police force and armed wing, the People’s
Protection Units, enlisted girls to guard checkpoints and conduct armed patrols
in Kurdish-controlled areas.

Boys have joined armed opposition groups for
various reasons. Many simply followed their relatives or friends. Others lived
in battle zones without open schools, participated in public protests, or had
personally suffered at the hands of the government. Islamist groups such as
ISIS have more aggressively targeted children for recruitment, providing free
lectures and schooling that included weapons and other military training.

“At first I was so scared…then I got used to
it,” said Ayman, who began fighting with an FSA brigade in Salqin when he was
15 years old.

Others interviewed echoed his words. Few had plans
or real hopes for their future beyond the next battle. “Maybe we’ll live, and
maybe we’ll die,” said Omar, who began fighting at age 14 with Jabhat al-Nusra.

International humanitarian law (the laws of
war) and international human rights law ban government forces and non-state
armed groups from recruiting and using children as fighters and in other
support roles. The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which Syria ratified in 2003, bans non-state armies from recruiting or
using children under age 18 in direct hostilities. Conscripting or enlisting
children under 15, including for support roles, is a war crime under the Rome
Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Several of the children interviewed said they
fought with two or three different armed groups fighting Syrian government
forces. Some -- like Amr who said he received US$100 a month -- received monthly
salaries of up to $135, while others said they participated without pay. Many
attended training camps where they learned military tactics and had weapons
training.

Children who wished to leave armed groups and
resume a civilian life told Human Rights Watch they had few options to do so.
Saleh, 17, said he fought with the Free Syrian Army at 15 after he was detained
and tortured by government security forces. He later joined Ahrar al-Sham, then
left to join the Jund al-Aqsa, an independent Islamist armed group. “I thought
of leaving [the fighting] a lot,” he said. “I lost my studies, I lost my
future, I lost everything. I looked for work, but there’s no work. This is the
most difficult period for me.”

Some armed groups told Human Rights Watch that
they prohibit child recruitment, or have taken preliminary steps to end the
practice. In March 2014, the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and
Opposition Forces, a coalition of opposition groups supported by the Free
Syrian Army, announced that it had implemented “new training for Free Syrian
Army members in International Humanitarian Law to eliminate the recruitment and
participation of children in armed conflict.”

COMMITMENTS

If they have not already done so, armed groups
operating in Syria should publicly commit to end recruitment and use of
children under age 18, and should demobilize all fighters or others under 18
currently in their ranks, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

Those recruited under age 18 but now no longer
children should be free to leave opposition forces. Armed groups should also
work with international agencies specialized in child protection to
rehabilitate and reintegrate these children into civilian life. Finally, they
should ensure that all officers under their command understand the ban on
recruiting or seeking assistance from children, and establish age-verification
procedures they must follow to enforce it. Officers responsible for recruitment
who continue to enlist children should be appropriately disciplined.

To address the practice of children joining
armed groups in Syria, UN bodies should seek public commitments from armed
groups not to recruit or enlist children under age 18 and use age-verification
procedures to ensure that children do not join. The UN Security Council should
refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court to allow
prosecution of war crimes, including the conscripting or enlisting of children
under 15 into armed forces or non-state armed groups or their active
participation in hostilities.

Governments providing aid to armed groups
in Syria should review these groups’ policies on child recruitment, and
should suspend all military sales and assistance, including technical training
and services, to all forces credibly implicated in the widespread or systematic
commission of serious abuses, including the use of child soldiers, until
they stop committing these crimes and take appropriate disciplinary action
against perpetrators. They should also restrict residents of their
countries from providing military support to these groups.

Finally, humanitarian agencies operating in
Syria or assisting refugees in neighboring countries should support efforts to
provide secondary education opportunities for children, and address the
particular needs and vulnerabilities of boys aged 13 to 18 in their child
protection programming.